---
id: "claim-middle-managers-stewards"
type: "claim"
source_timestamps: ["§ The Empathy Advantage"]
tags: ["middle-management", "culture-stewards"]
related: ["concept-empathy-gyms", "entity-businessolver"]
speakers: ["Jamil Zaki"]
confidence: "high"
testable: true
sources: ["adoption"]
sourceVaultSlug: "hbr-seg-adoption"
originDay: 9
articleStem: "hbr-edu-42-empathetic-leadership-ai-adoption"
sourceUrl: "https://hbr.org/2026/04/empathetic-leadership-can-make-or-break-ai-adoption"
sourceTitle: "Empathetic Leadership Can Make or Break AI Adoption"
---
# Frontline managers have become the primary stewards of workplace empathy

**Claim:** Frontline managers have become the primary stewards of workplace empathy. **(Confidence: high; testable: true)**

Responsibility for delivering empathy has shifted heavily toward the *middle layer* of an organization. According to [[entity-businessolver]] data, in **2020** only **10%** of employees believed managers had the most impact on workplace empathy; by **2025**, that figure had nearly quadrupled to **38%**.

Despite this shift, frontline managers rarely receive the soft-skills training afforded to senior executives, creating a dangerous gap between the empathetic culture executives desire and the reality employees experience on the ground. The prescribed remedy is scalable [[concept-empathy-gyms]] (see [[action-train-middle-layer]]).

**Enrichment / confidence:** The direction — middle managers gaining centrality in perceived empathy delivery — is credible and aligns with both Businessolver reporting and organizational theory (direct supervisors shape daily climate and psychological safety more than distant executives, especially in large firms). Precise percentages are specific to Businessolver's dataset.


## Related across articles
- [[claim-mid-managers-key-roi]]
- [[concept-make-or-break-layer]]